5 
070 


itermarnage 


DR.  D.  DE  SOLA  POOL 


University  of  California 

Southern  Regional 

Library  Facility 


JEWISH    WELFARE    BOARD 
UNITED  STATES  ARMY  AND  NAVY 

Co-operating  with  and   under   the   supervision 

of  War  Department  Commission  on  Training 

Camp  Activities 


NATIONAL  HEADQUARTERS:   149  FIFTH  AVENUE,  N.  Y. 





r 


Intermarriage 

oAn  Ancient  Problem 

f f  ROM  one  point  of  view,  the  gravest  problem 

H         which  Jewry  is  facing  to-day  is  that  of  in- 
^ , ^    termarriage  between  Jews  and  Christians. 

This  problem  is  not  a  new  one  in  Jewish  history,  but 
it  is  more  general  and,  therefore,  more  urgent  to-day 
than  it  has  ever  been  before.  We,  Jews,  have  always 
been  a  small  minority  in  the  world,  and  because  of 
this,  we  have  had  to  struggle  consciously  and  sternly 
for  our  survival.  From  the  very  beginning  of  our  his- 
tory, it  was  realized  that  marrying  outside  of  the  Jew- 
ish fold  carried  with  it  a  menace  to  our  Jewish  survival. 
Already  at  the  dim  dawn  of  Jewish  history,  Abraham, 
the  founder  of  the  Jewish  people,  had  to  decide  between 
his  two  sons,  Ishmael,  the  son  of  a  strange  wife,  and 
Isaac,  the  son  of  a  Hebrew  wife.  To  insure  that  the 
tradition  which  he  was  founding  should  be  transmitted 
in  its  purity  to  the  next  generation,  Abraham  sent 
away  Ishmael  and  chose  Isaac  as  his  true  son,  physi- 
cally and  spiritually.  Isaac  in  his  turn  was  faced  with 
the  same  necessity  of  choice  between  his  two  sons  Esau 
and  Jacob.  After  Esau  had  married  a  Hittite  wife 
and  thereby  had  put  himself  outside  of  the  direct  line 
of  Jewish  tradition,  Jacob  became  the  natural  and 
inevitable  heir  of  Jewish  life  and  thought. 

Later,  when  the  Hebrew  descendants  of  these  patri- 
archs had  become  a  people,  their  integrity  as  a  people 
was  threatened  by  the  mixed  multitude  of  Egyptians 
who  se  ized  the  opportunity  of  escaping  from  Egyptian 
bondage  with  them.  This  mixed  multitude  was  the 
cause  of  considerable  trouble  to  the  newly  born  Jewish 
people  on  its  weary  pilgrimage  to  the  promised  land, 


Palestine.  Throughout  the  whole  of  Biblical  history, 
there  is  repeated  testimony  to  the  troubles  which  came 
to  the  Jewish  people  and  its  individual  leaders  through 
disregard  of  the  prohibition  of  intermarriage.  This 
prohibition  is  expressed  most  explicitly  in  the  follow- 
ing words:  "When  the  Lord,  thy  God,  shall  bring 
thee  into  the  land  whither  thou  goest  to  possess  it,  and 
shall  cast  out  many  nations  before  thee,  .  .  .  thou 
shalt  make  no  covenant  with  them,  .  .  .  neither 
shalt  thou  make  marriages  with  them;  thy  daughter 
thou  shalt  not  give  unto  his  son,  nor  his  daughter  shalt 
thou  take  unto  thy  son.  For  he  will  turn  away  thy 
son  from  following  Me  that  they  may  serve  other 
gods;  so  will  the  anger  of  the  Lord  be  kindled  against 

thee  and  He  will  destroy  thee  quickly." 
(Deuteronomy  vii,  1-4). 


Problem  in  Every  Age 


How  great  a  menace  the  disregard  of  this  prohibition 
became,  is  made  as  clear  in  the  latest  parts  of  the  Bible 
as  it  is  in  the  earliest  Biblical  history.  Ezra  saw  that 
the  "people  of  Israel  .  .  .  have  not  separated  them- 
selves from  the  peoples  of  the  land,  ...  for  they  have 
taken  of  their  daughters  for  themselves  and  for  their 
sons.  .  .  ."  (Ezra  ix,  i,  2.)  This  disregard  of  the 
fundamental  law  of  Jewish  self-preservation  had  be- 
come so  serious,  that  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  the  leaders 
of  the  people,  induced  them  to  take  the  drastic  measure 
of  divorce  from  their  non-Jewish  wives.  So  far  was  the 
mixture  of  blood  progressing,  that  these  far-seeing  lead- 
ers saw  that  no  steps  less  thorough  than  this  could 
succeed  in  preserving  the  integrity  of  the  Jewish  people. 
Later,  the  rabbis,  from  bitter  experience,  set  their 
faces  sternly  against  mixed  marriages,  and  all  the  years 
of  subsequent  Jewish  history  have  borne  witness  to  the 
practical  wisdom  of  their  policy. 

¥age  Four 


In  Modern  Times 

Since  the  nineteenth  century  -when  emancipation 
brought  about  a  free  mixing  of  Jews  and  non-Jews,  the 
opportunity  for  intermarriage  has  grown.  One  of 
the  first  results  of  emancipation  of  the  Jews  was  an 
enormous  increase  in  the  number  ol  intermarriages; 
and  since  those  first  days  of  tolerance,  all  over  the  world 
there  has  been  a  striking  and  most  on;inous  increase  in 
intermarriage  between  Jew  and  Gentile. 

Heart  Versus  Head 

Why  in  these  days  should  Judaism  still  continue  to 
oppose  intermarriage?  It  is  argued  that  the  strength 
of  the  power  of  love  is  such  that  no  consideration  of 
expediency  can  withstand  it.  If  this  were  true,  and 
men  married  when  they  fell  in  love  without  allowing 
their  heads  in  some  measure  to  control  their  hearts, 
marriage  would  by  now  have  become  a  thoroughly 
discredited  human  institution.  The  experience  of  the 
human  race  has  decreed  that  between  falling  in  love 
and  getting  married,  there  shall  be  an  appreciable  inter- 
val for  reflection.  This  experience  is  summed  up  in 
the  proverbial  saying,  "Marry  in  haste,  repent  at 
leisure."  Every  marriage  is  virtually  an  irrevocable 
act,  and  a  mismarriage  can  be  rectified  only  by  the 
costly,  tedious  and  painful  processes  of  the  divorce 
court.  The  Jewish  man  who  has  fallen  in  love  with 
some  fair  non-Jewish  maiden  would  therefore  do  well 
not  to  overlook  some  of  the  practical  considerations 
involved  in  his  taking  the  final  step  of  marriage  with 
its  lifelong  obligations. 

Radical  Character 

Deeply  rooted  in  the  nature  of  all  of  us  are  profound 
race  memories  which  centuries  of  race  tradition  have 
woven  into  the  very  fibre  of  our  natures.  So  enlight- 

fage  Five 


ened  and  liberal  a  non-Jewish  writer  as  George  Eliot 
recognised  these  inner  essential  differences  between 
Jew  and  Gentile.  She  describes  one  of  the  Jewish 
characters  in  her  novel  "Daniel  Deronda"  as  not  of  "a 
nature  that  would  bear  dividing  against  itself;  and 
even  if  love  won  her  consent  to  marry  a  man  who  was 
not  of  her  race  and  religion,  she  would  never  be  happy 
in  acting  against  that  strong  native  bias  which  would 
still  reign  in  her  conscience  as  remorse."  There  is 
at  bottom  an  ineradicable  race  feeling  which  in  our 
own  days  is  stirring  the  Czecho-Slovaks,  the  Arabs  of 
the  Hejaz,  the  Poles,  the  Jews,  and  all  other  distinctive 
racial  groups,  to  assert  themselves  in  their  own  right 
and  in  their  own  individuality.  It  is  these  fundamental 
differences  between  Jew  and  non-Jew  which  lurk  be- 
neath the  surface,  watching  and  working  for  the 
opportunity  which  friction  brings  to  break  through  and 
aggravate  any  discord  which  may  arise  in  a  home  based 
on  the  union  of  Jew  and  Gentile. 


A  Divided  Home 

It  is  a  demonstrable  fact  that  this  deep-lying  incom- 
patibility of  nature  in  the  parties  joined  in  a  mixed 
marriage  works  strongly  toward  bringing  domestic 
division  and  disruption  into  that  home.  Happiness 
in  the  home  is  an  atmosphere  created  by  sympathetic 
feelings  on  the  part  of  husband  and  of  wife.  Among 
the  strongest  and  deepest  of  these  feelings  are  the  race 
feelings  just  mentioned,  and  religious  feeling.  One 
can  argue  ill  with  feelings.  A  feeling  is  its  own 
justification  and  it  seldom  yields  to  logic.  The  feeling 
which  the  Jew  has  toward  Judaism  and  his  Jewish 
people  is  something  which  he  can  often  hardly  explain 
to  himself.  His  brain  may  tell  him  that  he  is  not  an 
observant  Jew,  that  he  rarely  attends  a  house  of  wor- 
ship, that  his  beliefs  are  few,  that  he  is  far  from  living 

fage  Six 


up  to  the  religion  as  he  was  taught  it  as  a  child,  and 
that  perchance  he  has  few  Jewish  connections.  Yet. 
suffusing  his  whole  being  is  a  strong  feeling  of  warm 
sympathy  with  and  pride  in  his  religion  and  people. 

Let  anyone  but  insult  Judaism,  or  the  Jews,  in  his 
hearing,  and  it  will  at  once  be  seen  how  strong  and  how 
real  is  his  almost  undreamed-of  feeling  for  his  religion 
and  his  people.  This  latent  feeling  will  co-exist  in  the 
Jewish  husband  for  Judaism  and  in  the  Christian  wife 
for  Christianity,  though  perhaps  neither  will  suspect 
its  existence.  So  long  as  the  skies  are  fair  and  no  clouds 
cast  a  shadow  over  love's  young  dream,  these  feelings 
will  remain  below  the  surface.  But  at  the  first  threat 
of  trouble  within  the  home,  these  feelings  will  struggle 
for  expression.  The  incompatibility  of  his  feeling  for 
Judaism  and  of  hers  for  Christianity  will  inevitably 
serve  to  add  fuel  to  the  smoldering  fires  of  domestic 
discord. 

The  Evidence  From  Divorce 

A  striking  and  irrefutable  proof  of  this  is  furnished  by 
the  practical  test  of  the  figures  of  divorce  in  mixed 
marriages,  as  compared  with  those  in  marriages  which 
are  not  mixed.  Thus,  in  Berlin  "during  the  ten  years 
i8gz  to  1902,  to  each  1,000  marriages  there  were 
divorces  as  follows:  Jews,  3;  Christians,  3.91;  Jews 
married  to  Christian  women,  10.09;  Christians  mar- 
ried to  Jewesses,  11.16.  Mixed  marriages  are  thus 
three  to  Jour  times  more  likely  to  be  dissolved  than  pure 
marriages."  (Fischberg.)  Such  figures,  which  can 
be  paralleled  from  other  sources,  constitute  a  clear 
proof  that  a  mixed  marriage  is  far  more  likely  to  turn 
out  unhappily  than  a  normal  marriage  between  a 
couple  of  similar  race  and  religion. 

fage  Seven 


Parents  and  Children 

Another  aspect  of  the  mixed  marriage  which  should 
make  a  man  pause  before  he  enters  into  it  at  the  call 
of  his  heart  without  the  control  of  his  head,  is  the 
thought  of  the  division  which  the  mixed  marriage 
brings  between  his  new  home  and  his  parents  and  the 
parents  of  his  wife.  Though  both  husband  and  wife 
may  be  unobservant  in  their  religious  practise,  his 
parents  and  her  parents  are  likely  to  have  stronger 
religious  feelings.  Both  the  Jewish  and  the  Christian 
parents  will  be  apt  to  look  with  disfavor  upon  the 
mate  chosen  by  their  child.  No  man  worthy  of  the 
name  will,  without  further  thought,  enter  into  a  union 
which  he  knows  will  mean  a  lifelong  sorrow  to  his 
parents,  and  which  may  result  in  a  complete  break 
between  him  and  the  father  and  mother  who  have 
given  him  life.  This  is  the  ancient  tragedy  of  Isaac 
and  Rebecca  to  whom  the  Hittite  wife  of  their  son  Esau 
was  "a  bitterness  of  spirit."  "And  Rebecca  said  to 
Isaac,  I  am  weary  of  my  life  because  of  the  daughters 
of  Heth.  If  Jacob  take  a  wife  of  the  daughters  of 
Heth,  such  as  these,  of  the  daughters  of  the  land,  what 
good  shall  my  life  do  to  me?"  (Genesis  xxvi,  34,  35; 
xxvii,  46.)  It  is  the  tragedy  of  the  parents  of  Sam- 
son, who  said  to  him  when  he  announced  his  intention 
of  marrying  a  Philistine  wife:  "Is  there  never  a  woman 
among  the  daughters  of  thy  brethren,  or  among  all 
my  people,  that  thou  goest  to  take  a  wife  of  the  Philis- 
tines?" (Judges  xiv,  3.)  The  parent's  heart  too  orten 
breaks  at  the  knowledge  that  the  son  on  whom  so  many 
of  their  hopes  have  been  bestowed,  is  contemplating 
a  marriage  that  must  mean  a  complete  break  with  the 
Jewish  tradition  for  which  they  and  the  whole  Jewish 
people  have  struggled  and  suffered  for  centuries. 

Wage  Eight 


Jewish  Loss 

Such  a  marriage  usually  forebodes  a  farewell  to  Judaism 
and  the  Jewish  people.  The  Jewish  husband,  married 
to  a  Christian  wife,  will  be  unable  to  keep  firmly  to 
his  Jewish  moorings.  Even  if  he  stands  firm  in  his 
general  feelings  towards  his  people  and  his  religion, 
he  is  likely  to  lead  an  increasingly  less  Jewish  life.  He 
will  hardly  develop  in  the  same  Jewish  spirit  as  if  he 
had  married  a  daughter  of  his  own  people,  who  could 
strengthen  his  Jewish  feeling,  and  care  for  the  Jewish- 
ness  of  his  home. 

Loss  of  the  Children 

If  the  Jewish  integrity  of  a  man  who  enters  into  a 
mixed  marriage  is  threatened,  it  may  be  fairly  said 
that  the  fate  of  the  children  of  a  mixed  marriage  is 
practically  settled  in  advance.  The  Jewish  law  pro- 
hibiting mixed  marriages  explicitly  gives  as  its  reason 
the  prospect  that  the  non-Jewish  wife  "will  turn  away 
thy  son  from  following  God.  .  .  .  and  He  will  destroy 
thee  quickly."  (Deuteronomy  vii,  3,  4.)  In  the  days 
of  Nehemiah,  this  forecast  was  vividly  verified.  For 
Nehemiah  observed  that  the  children  of  mixed  marri- 
ages were  speaking  the  foreign  tongue  of  their  non- 
Jewish  mothers.  They  were  not  growing  up  to  speak 
the  language  of  the  Jews,  i.e.,  to  think,  talk  and  act 
as  Jews.  (Nehemiah  xiii,  23-27.)  This  result  is 
almost  inevitable.  For  the  children  will  take  the  course 
of  least  resistance.  The  religion  of  the  mother,  Chris- 
tianity, is  the  dominant  religion  of  the  land,  and  there- 
fore comparatively  easy  to  follow;  the  religion  of  the 
father  is  the  religion  of  a  small  minority,,  set  about 
with  difficulties  of  observance  in  a  non-Jewish  land. 
To  be  a  Jew  means  to  set  on  oneself  religious  restric- 
tions and  social  limitations.  What  chances  are  there 
that  the  children  of  a  mixed  marriage  will  make  any 
serious  attempt  to  keep  the  difficult  Jewish  seventh  day 

<Page  Nine 


Sabbath  instead  of  the  easy  Christian  first  day  Sun- 
day? What  prospect  is  there  that  the  children  of  a 
mixed  marriage  will  care  for  Passover  as  much  as  they 
care  for  Easter?  What  probability  is  there  that  the 
children  of  a  mixed  marriage  will  celebrate  Chanuka, 
an  obscure  Jewish  festival,  instead  of  giving  them- 
selves up  to  the  Christmas  which  all  the  world  will  be 
celebrating?  The  religion  of  the  minority  struggles 
every  moment  against  absorption  in  the  religion  of  the 
majority.  If  the  child's  parentage  gives  him  an  equal 
choice,  he  will  almost  inevitably  choose  the  easy  re- 
ligion of  the  majority,  and  the  fuller  social  opportunity 
that  is  before  the  non-Jew. 

The  facts  themselves  prove  this.  "All  statistical  evi- 
dence on  the  subject  shows  that  about  75  per  cent  of  all 
the  children  born  to  Jews  married  to  Christians  are  bap- 
tized immediately  at  birth,  and  only  25  per  cent  are 
raised  as  Jews."  (Fischberg.)  In  Hungary,  of  the 
4.069  mixed  marriages  contracted  during  the  ten 
years,  1895  to  1904,  85.13  per  cent,  declared  that  they 
desired  to  bring  up  their  children  as  Christians,  and 
only  14.87  per  cent,  decided  in  favor  of  the  Jewish 
religion.  Similarly  in  New  South  Wales,  where  the 
husband  was  Jewish,  only  25.99  Per  cent,  of  the  chil- 
dren were  raised  as  Jews.  In  Copenhagen,  out  of  370 
families  of  Jews  married  to  Christians,  61  raised  their 
children  as  Jews,  288  as  Christians.  In  Prussia,  in  the 
year  1905,  only  22.67  per  cent. of  the  children  of  mixed 
marriages  were  raised  as  Jews.  These  figures  tend  to 
become  more  and  more  extreme  as  the  years  go  on. 

The  Next  Generation 

Even  in  those  cases  where  the  children  of  a  mixed  mar- 
riage are  brought  up  as  Jews,  "this  does  not  represent 
the  entire  loss  sustained  by  Judaism  through  inter- 
marriage. A  person  who  has  one  parent  of  Christian 

Page  Ten 


origin,  even  if  raised  as  a  Jew,  is  more  likely  to  marry 
a  Christian  than  a  Jew,  because  socially  he  comes  into 
intimate  contact  with  his  Christian  relatives  and  their 
friends.  It  is  also  not  so  difficult  for  him  to  be  bap- 
tised, because  he  considers  himself  as  much  of  Christian 
as  of  Jewish  origin.  It  is  Ruppin's  opinion  that  hardly 
10  per  cent,  of  the  children  resulting  from  mixed  mar- 
riages remain  Jews  for  any  considerable  length  of  time. 
Of  these  it  is  doubtful  whether  any  Jews  are  left  after 
two  or  three  generations."  (Fischberg.) 


Religious  Objections 


In  the  face  of  this  disastrous  effect  of  mixed  marriages 
on  Jewish  life,  and  more  especially  in  the  face  of  their 
increasing  frequency,  it  may  be  asked  what  is  the  mod- 
ern Jewish  attitude  toward  these  facts.  The  Jewish 
attitude  towards  mixed  marriage  is  the  same  as  the 
historical  attitude  of  the  church.  Many  of  the  church 
councils  issued  edicts  prohibiting  Christians  to  marry 
Jewish  wives.  Every  religious  group  is  zealous  for 
its  own  integrity.  But  we  Jews  have  an  added  reason 
for  zealously  struggling  to  maintain  ourselves  as  Jews. 
For  we  constitute  something  more  than  a  religious 
group.  We  are  also  an  historically  distinctive  people. 

We  came  into  existence  and  have  been  preserved  as  a 
separate  people  by  our  religion — Judaism.  It  is  the 
Jewish  religion,  with  its  unwavering  emphasis  on  the 
Jewish  seventh  day  Sabbath,  its  distinctive  Jewish 
holy  days  and  festivals,  its  wealth  of  ceremonial  ob- 
servances, and  its  sublime  religious  literature,  which 
has  created  the  Jewish  people  with  its  strongly  marked 
identity.  If,  then,  every  people  has  the  right  to  exist, 
and  every  religion  has  the  right  to  exist,  we  Jews  pos- 
sess the  right  to  existence  in  double  measure.  For  we 
have  both  the  material  claims  for  survival  of  the  race 
and  the  spiritual  claims  for  survival  of  the  religion. 

Page  Eleven 


The  Jew  who  marries  "out,"  therefore,  is  actually 
marrying  himself  outside  of  his  people,  and  is  marrying 
himself  outside  of  his  religion.  He  is  committing  a 
double  desertion,  and  is  contributing  to  the  weakening 
both  of  his  people  and  of  his  religion  by  his  personal 
defection. 

United  Jewish  Feeling 

There  is  no  difference  of  opinion  between  orthodox  Jews 
and  reform  Jews  in  their  attitude  toward  the  mixed 
marriage.  It  goes  without  say  ing  that  orthodox  Jewry 
with  its  consistent  emphasis  on  all  distinctly  Jewish 
observances  and  its  hope  of  a  Jewish  restoration  in 
Palestine,  regards  intermarriage  as  treason  to  the 
Jewish  people  and  to  Judaism.  But  reform  Jewry  is 
no  less  emphatic  in  its  condemnation  of  intermarriage. 
One  of  the  early  leaders  of  reform  Judaism  in  America 
has  said  that  every  mixed  marriage  is  a  nail  in  the 
coffin  of  Judaism.  In  less  figurative  style,  the  reform 
Rabbis  of  the  United  States,  meeting  in  conference  in 
New  York  City,  in  1909,  passed  a  resolution  declaring 
"that  mixed  marriages  are  contrary  to  the  tradition  of 
the  Jewish  religion  and  should  therefore  be  discouraged 
by  the  American  Rabbinate."  No  Rabbi,  even  the 
most  liberal,  will  officiate  at  a  mixed  marriage  unless 
the  non-Jewish  bride  or  bridegroom  has  previously 
accepted  Judaism. 

Value  of  a  Conversion 

Yet  what  does  this  conversion  usually  mean?  If 
experience  had  shown  that  mixed  marriages  usually 
followed  a  convinced  acceptance  of  Judaism  on  the 
part  of  the  non-Jewish  element  in  the  marriage,  Jew- 
ish feeling  would  no  more  oppose  intermarriage  than 
Roman  Catholic  feeling  opposes  it  when  the  promise 
is  given  that  the  children  will  be  brought  up  in  the 
Catholic  Church.  But  almost  uniformly,  experience 

Page  Twelve 


shows  that  a  mixed  marriage  is  contracted  more  or 
less  hurriedly;  and  when  the  non-Jewish  element  in 
the  union  does  undertake  conversion  to  Judaism,  this 
conversion  is  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  little  more  than 
a  superficial  form.  It  is  usually  undertaken  to  please 
the  Jewish  husband  or  wife,  or  to  satisfy  the  Jewish 
parents-in-law.  Jewish  tradition  demands  that  a 
proselyte,  in  order  to  be  received  into  the  fold  of 
Judaism,  shall  accept  Judaism  for  its  own  sake,  and 
not  for  the  sake  of  a  love  affair.  The  acceptance  of 
Judaism  must  be  an  acceptance  of  Jewish  teachings 
after  a  prolonged  and  intensive  study  of  Judaism,  and 
a  sincere  adoption  of  Jewish  life  and  Jewish  observances 
for  all  time  to  come.  Of  how  many  converts  who  have 
accepted  Judaism  for  the  sake  of  a  mixed  marriage  can 
it  be  said  that  Judaism  means  anything  at  all  to  them 
in  their  daily  life?  Of  not  more  than  the  fewest  of  a 
small  number  can  it  be  said  that  their  conversion  is 
sincere  and  that  they  constitute  a  real  accession  to  the 
Jewish  people.  Judaism  and  the  Jewish  people  do  not 
seek  converts.  Fighting  to  maintain  themselves  at 
all,  they  are  not  strong  enough  to  take  into  themselves 
any  blood  from  the  outside,  unless  this  blood  will  unite 
with  and  strengthen  their  own  Jewish  life  blood,  in- 
stead of  diluting  it  still  further  and  making  their 
chances  of  Jewish  life  still  weaker. 


Crvil  Marriage 


It  is  this  consideration  which  makes  it  apparent  that 
for  a  Jew  to  marry  an  unreligious  Christian  woman, 
or  an  agnostic  or  unbeliever,  is  no  less  detrimental  to 
Judaism  than  for  him  to  marry  an  observant  Christian. 
For  the  chances  of  her  strengthening  the  Jewish 
atmosphere  in  the  home  are  just  as  small  as  in  the  case 
of  the  believing  Christian.  The  children  are  perhaps 
even  less  likely  to  be  brought  up  as  Jews  when  neither  par- 
ent cares  for  religious  life  than  when  both  or  one  of  the 

Page  Thirteen 


parties  values  the  restraints,  safeguards  and  inspira- 
tion of  religious  training.  The  Jew  has  therefore  set 
hij;  face  consistently  against  a  marriage  which  is  not 
solemnizec  under  religious  auspices.  He  regards  mar- 
riage as  the  foundation  of  stable  society,  and  he  feels 
that  a  step  as  basically  important  as  is  marriage  for  the 
individuals  taking  it  and  for  the  society  which  it  helps 
build  up,  should  be  entered  into  under  the  most  solemn 
conditions,  and  not  merely  as  a  civil  legal  contract. 
While  the  Jew,  always  a  respecter  of  the  law  of  the 
land,  regards  civil  marriage  ;js  binding,  he  does  not  look 
upon  it  with  favor  unless  it  is  supplemented  by  a  re- 
lik  ;us  consecration.  Centuries  ago,  the  Rabbis  de- 
clared that  carriages  are  made  in  heaven,  and  in  this 
spirit  t  -,e  Jew  holds  that  they  should  be  solemnized  by 
the  ir  /ocation  of  the  heavenly  blessing.  A  mixed 
marriage  cannot  be  blessed  sincerely  by  priest,  clergy- 
man or  rabbi,  and  the  augury  for  married  life  is  ill  when 
the  nuptial  ruy  cannot  be  made  a  day  of  religious 
consecration. 

The  Struggle  for  Jewish  Survival 

When  the  universa1  conscience  of  Jewry  is  so  firmly 
set  against  intermar  iage,  it  is  not  because  the  Jew  feels 
himself  to  be  in  any  sense  super^-  *o  the  non-'ew,  any 
more  t!'  in  he  feels  himself  to  .iferior  to  the  non- 
Jew.  [;:  is  no  feeling  of  narr^\v  separatism,  racial 
pride  or  unreasoning  exclusiveness,  that  makes  the 
Jew  oppose  the  mixed  marriage.  The  rf  tson  for  his 
attitude  is  to  be  found  in  the  fundament  instinctive 
desire  for  Jewish  sur  /al — the  in-dnc.  ^e  protest 
against  Jewish  extinct,  i.  Deep  down  ••extricably 
interwoven  into  the  very  fibre  of  our  being,  is  this 
instinct  for  self-prtservat'on,  both  in  our  own  persons 
as  members  of  the  Jewic  i  people,  and  in  our  children 
whom  we  would  see  grov  up  in  the  same  people  as  has 
been  ours,  our  parents'  an  J  our  ancestors'  for  thousands 

Page  Fourteen 


II  llll 
A    000  049  642     2 

of  years.  This  is  a  natural  and  glorious  pride  of  race, 
which  disputes  no  one  else's  claim  to  a  similar  pride 
in  his  own  race,  but  which  rather  justifies  each  man  in 
such  pride  in  his  own  race  and  traditions  The  man 
who  will  destroy  the  line  of  this  tradition  in  his  own 
family;  the  man  who  will  heedlessly  bring  division 
between  himself  and  his  own  .parents  and  act  in  a  way 
that  brings  reproach  upon  them,  be  they  living  or  dead; 
the  man  who  will  enter  into  an  all'ance  which  will 
probably  involve  his  children's  growing  up  alien  from 
him  in  spirit  and  perchance  despising  him  as  a  Jew ;  the 
man  who  will  enter  into  what  should  be  the  most  en- 
during, most  intimate  and  most  sacred  human  ur  ,-n, 
knowing  that  that  union  is  threatened  ,U  tl  e  outset 
by  deep-lying  and  deeply  founded  differenc  -s,  the 
man  who  will  be  untrue  to  his  people  and  its  idt  als  and 
will  desert  it  in  its  hour  of  need,  is  one  whom  the  con- 
science of  Jewry  rightly  excludes  from  fellowship, 
equality  and  honor.  He  is  one  who  is  denying  his 
parents  and  all  t,  e  past  which  has  made  him  what, he 
is ;  he  is  sacrificing  the  happiness  of  years  for  momen- 
tary happiness,  and  he 'is  cutting  on ,  from  hims:lf  his 
own  natural  future  and  accepting  a  future  bound  up 
with  a  faith  that  is  not  his  own. 

Duty  to  the  Jewish  People 

No  reason  n>ed  be  ren  why  the  Jewish  pt  .>ple  and 
the  Jewish  religion  demand  their  own  future.  Their 
existence  to-day  is  their  justification.  But  especially 
in  these  da  rs  of  the  rights  of  minor  races  and  of  free- 
dom of  cor  cience,  there  is  no  question  of  the  right  of 
a  people,  i  -yev.T,  small,  to  r  intain  itself  as  a  people, 
any  more'  nan  there  can  be  a  question  as  to  the  right 
of  any  group  of  men  to  worship  God  as  their  conscience 
dictates. 

Yet ,  in  apparent  conflict  witr  chis  right  of  the  people  as 
a  whole, there  stands  the  right  of  the  individual  who  is 

Page  Fifteen 


contemplating  marriage  outside  of  the  fold.  Into  the 
larf,e  question  of  ho\v  far  the  individual  is  justified  in 
seeking  his  own  ends  .-it  the  expense  of  the  welfare  of 
his  people  we  cannot  enter  here  at  length.  But  the 
Jew,  struggling  for  survival  in  a  worlcK  which  is  not 
Jewish,  has  lived  as  a  rrar:yr  people  for  centuries. 
This  struggle  for  survival  is  arid  must  be  one  which  calls 
for  sacrifice  from  each  individual  Jew.  An  ideal  which 
is  not  strong  enough  to  call  forth  sacrifice  is  an  un- 
worthy ideal.  The  man  who  will  not  undergo  hardship 
and  face  difficulties  and  even  persecution  for  the  sake" 
of  his  religion  is  an  unworthy  adherent  of  that  religion. 
The  man  who  will  not  undergo  hardship  for  the  welfare 
and  integrity  of  his  people  is  unv  orthy  of  his  people. 

But  we  Americans  have  given  our  own  answer.  We 
have  willingly  limited  out  individual  right  to  eat  as 
we  wished  in  accepting  the  national  limitations  of 
voluntary  food  control.  We  have  given  up  our  right 
to  unlimited  freedom  of  speech  and  freedom  of  the  press 
in  our  voluntary  acceptance  of  a  censorship  on  speech 
and  on  the  press  for  the  national  good.  We  have  will- 
ingly placed  our  businesses  under  Governmental  con- 
trol, allowing  the  Government  to  determine  prices, 
the  right  of  shipment  and  many  other  of  our  individual 
rights.  We  have  regarded  ourselves  as  at  the  service 
of  the  state,  and  have  been  ready  to  devote  our  all, 
even  our  lives,  for  our  nation.  Surely  then,  we  cannot 
argue  against  the  right  of  a  people  to  control  in  some 
measure  the  acts  of  the  individuals  constituting  that 
people,  when  those  acts  are  opposed  to  the  welfare  of 
the  people  as  a  whole.  The  Jewish  people  and  Judaism, 
at  all  times  fighting  for  survival,  have  the  right  to  claim 
the  loyalty  and  the  self-sacrifice  of  every  individual  Jew. 


Page  Sixteen 


